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Press Release

New Health Center Breaks Ground in West Contra Costa County

Archived.This is an older press release from 2011 and may not contain the latest information. Please view our current press releases for 2015 items.

What:

Ground breaking for new state-of-the-art Health Center

Where:

13601 San Pablo Avenue (North of Vale Road), San Pablo

Who:

Congressman George Miller; County Supervisor John Gioia; County Health Services Director Dr. William Walker; State Senator Loni Hancock; State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner; San Pablo Vice Mayor Cecilia Valdez; Construction & Building Trade CEO Greg Feere; Board members from the West Contra Costa Healthcare District & Doctors Medical Center Governing Body; elected officials from the cities of San Pablo and Richmond

When:

Friday, May 20, 2011; 11—11:30 a.m.

San Pablo, Calif. — After years of planning and searching for a new site, Contra Costa County is officially breaking ground to celebrate the construction of a new West Contra Costa County Health Center in San Pablo.

"West County residents deserve a health center we can be proud of," said County Supervisor John Gioia who has worked on building a new center for more than a decade. "The new health center will allow the County to improve access to high quality healthcare services in partnership with other healthcare providers in West County."

The total project cost is estimated at $45 million. Congressman George Miller secured $12 million for the project from ARRA Grants -- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The balance is financed through a 30-year bond issuance. The new 53,000 square foot, 2-level state-of-the-art health center will also be LEED Certified — a building standard for green construction, maintenance, and operations and is considered to have less impact on the environment.

The new facility will replace the aging Richmond Health Center, which was built more than 40 years ago in the City of Richmond. The current health center sees more than 7000 patients a month and offers 53 different services to patients including cardiology and pediatric services. However, the building has exceeded its useful life and is the only one among the eight health centers operated by Contra Costa Health Services never to have been replaced, said CCHS Director Dr. William Walker.

"This new health center will help us better serve West County residents, increasing the number of people we can serve and improving access to care," Dr. Walker said. "We'll continue to provide primary and specialty care at the new facility, along with well-baby visits, immunizations and other critical services."

Project construction is expected to be completed in July of 2012 and is scheduled to be operational and occupied by September of 2012. To hear a podcast by Dr. Walker about the groundbreaking, visit: http://cchealth.org/topics/podcast/

Note to reporters and editors:
The construction site will be open to news agencies by 10 a.m. on 5/20 for photography and videography.